I think there's data, and then there's information that comes from data, and then there's knowledge that comes from information. And then, after knowledge, there is wisdom. I am interested in how to get from data to wisdom.

Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do.

I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.

Anything I have ever learned of any consequence, I have learned from Black people. I have never been bored by any Black person, ever.

I sometimes lose interest in the characters and get much more interested in the trees and animals.

A son ain't what a woman say. A son is what a man do.

All the time, I'm afraid the thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could happen again. I don't know what it is, I don't know who it is, but maybe there is something else terrible enough to make her do it again. I need to know what that thing might be, but I don't want to. Whatever it is, it comes from outside this house, outside the yard, and it can come right on in the yard if it wants to. So I never leave this house and I watch over the yard, so it can't happen again and my mother won't have to kill me too.